Gastronomes, seek for honest criticism!

Most people prefer to be silently angry about mistakes made by the service staff or the food and resolve never to frequent the restaurant again. This is neither the best solution for you nor for the gastronome.

Not wanting a discussion

Of course guests do not state their honest opinion. It could lead to a lengthy discussion with the service staff. Therefore almost no one will choose this path, when it is so much easier to keep the criticism to oneself, leave and never come back. This attitude is dangerous to the restaurant. A lot of money and their business itself is at stake for the gastronome. A well-intentioned lie is therefore poison for the gastronomy. But how can you convince your guests to be honest about their opinions?

The magic word anonymous

Being able to place negative criticism anonymously lowers the inhibitions about doing so. Offer your guests a opportunity to do this anonymously, easily and fast. It has to be uncomplicated and can't take up much time because only a few guests will be willing to put in the effort. One solution may be short questionnaires where ticking off questions suffices. The form cannot have too many questions on it but offer the opportunity to give individual feedback. Those feedback forms can be brought to the table together with the check and a pen or be placed clearly visible at the exit. After answering the feedback questions the form can be cast into a box.

Finding weaknesses

These feedback forms are certainly less enlightening than a personal conversation with the guest, but they do inform about grave mistakes and where work needs to be put in. If, for example, the service gets a bad feedback, you are able to find the reasons for it and take the appropriate steps.

Online reservations book as feedback form

CentralPlanner offers guests the possibility to offer special wishes. Those can be combined with constructive criticism. The feature of anonymity is lost, but the guest is in no danger of having to have a discussion and stays anonymous in some way. It is, for instance, possible to remark that one would like a special whine that was not available at the last visit or order a rare steak and add that the steak was sadly well-done the last time. This way a gastronome can react directly and make up for past mistakes.